Renee was right, of course, but if Sam hadn't been so weary he might have laughed.

Survive. It was a simple answer. An honest answer.

But really, what else could they do?

They'd try their hardest to survive. Maybe they'd succeed, maybe not. What really mattered wasn't surviving in the strictest sense of the word, but just outlasting the others being killed. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

Then, when there were only two people left, one would have to kill the other. And then, the Sheriff would declare a winner. The winner, standing in the middle of an empty street, full of empty buildings. Alderbrook's finest.

They didn't win anything.

A bullet, if they were unlucky. Maybe the Sheriff would appear, standing there in the wind and the dust, his hand on his gun. He'd tell the winner to draw, and... Either way they lost. If that happened, if the Sheriff was willing to put his life on the line to taunt the last of them, and the Sheriff lost, he still won in the end. There was truly no escape, not before the heat or the dehydration got you.

And if it was true, if the madman actually let the winner go home? There was still no escape. This place was etched in all of their memories forever, as long as they lived.